Animal self feeder

ABSTRACT

A self feeder for horses allows for automatic periodic feedings of an exact predetermined quantity of feed. A plurality of compartments are disposed in side-by-side relationship with a common access lid allowing simultaneous filling of all compartments with feed. Each compartment has a hingedly coupled delivery door for a bottom which allows for gravitation of the feed into a common hopper that directs the feed to a desired location. Each delivery door is held in its normally closed position by a spring biased catch disposed under the free end of each door. An elongated shaft extending the length of the feeder presents a common activator for all of the catches. The shaft is characterized by multiple radially extending fingers which engage the catches when the shaft is rotated. Rotation of the shaft is controlled by a motor which is coupled with an electric timing clock through a first circuit. At periodic time intervals the timing clock provides an activating pulse for the motor to rotate the shaft. The shaft carries a jumping cam which, upon rotation, closes a switch to complete a second circuit disposed in parallel relationship with the first circuit. The switch remains closed to continue rotation of the shaft until the camming surface disengages the switch. After any delivery doors have been opened, the same may be simultaneously closed by a closure mechanism which is activated upon opening of the access lid.

United States Patent 1191 Carr et al.

[ Nov. 5, 1974 ANIMAL SELF FEEDER [75] Inventors: Hugh G. Carr, Kansas City; William L. Steffen, Liberty, both of Mo.

[73] Assignee: The Starr Corporation, Kansas City,

Kans.

[22] Filed: July 16, 1973 [21] Appl. No.: 379,622

[52] U.S. Cl. 119/51.13 [51] Int. Cl A01k 05/02 [58] Field ofSearch ..l19/5l.ll,5l.l2,51.13,

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 741,310 10/1903 Crotto ll9/5l.l4

FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS Denmark Great Britain Primary Examiner-Hugh R. Chamblee Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Lowe, Kokjer, Kircher, Wharton & Bowman [57] ABSTRACT A self feeder for horses allows for automatic periodic feedings of an exact predetermined quantity of feed. A plurality of compartments are disposed in side-by-side relationship with a common access lid allowing simultaneous filling of all compartments with feed. Each compartment has a hingedly coupled delivery door for a bottom which allows for gravitation of the feed into a common hopper that directs the feed to a desired location. Each delivery door is held in its normally closed position by a spring biased catch disposed under the free end of each door. An elongated shaft extending the length of the feeder presents a common activator for all of the catches. The shaft is characterized by multiple radially extending fingers which engage the catches when the shaft is rotated. Rotation of the shaft is controlled by a motor which is coupled with an electric timing clock through a first circuit. At periodic time intervals the timing clock provides an activating pulse for the motor to rotate the shaft. The

shaft carries a jumping cam which, upon rotation, closes a switch to complete a second circuit disposed in parallel relationship with the first circuit. The switch remains closed to continue rotation of the shaft until the camming surface disengages the switch. After any delivery doors have been opened, the same may be simultaneously closed by a closure mechanism which is activated upon opening of the access lid.

7 Claims, 8 Drawing Figures PAIENTEURBV 5x914 sum ear 2 ANIMAL SELF FEEDER This invention relates to self feeders for animals, and more particularly to a self feeder capable of delivering a measured quantity of feed to ananimal at multiple predetermined spaced apart time intervals.

For many years, efforts have been made a provide antomatic self feeders for many different animals. In the agricultural field where the objective is normally to have the animal gain weight, self feeders have been successful since they normally allow the animal to feed itself whenever it is hungry and to eat all the food it desires. In controlled laboratory situations, however, it has heretofore been necessary to rely largely upon manual labor to assure feeding of a controlled quantity of food at periodic time intervals to animals under surveillance for scientific purposes. The same it true of pleasure and racing horses. A-properly cared for horse is fed relatively small increments of food at frequent time intervals during the day and must not be allowed to overeat. Particularly in the case of high bred stock, it is important that the feeding time be exactly repeated each and every day.

While there have been self feeders for horses available .on the market in the past, these have not achieved success or been accepted by the large majority of horseowners. This lack of success is attributable to the unreliability of such feeders. Automatic self feeders for horses have heretofore in some instances depended upon augers to move a desired quantity of feed from a storage bin to a feeding area. In other instances variable opening type feeders have been utilized. Because of possible bridging of feed within the storage bin and general unreliability of the quantity of feed passing through the auger or opening, a horse owner cannot rely upon an exact quantity of feed being delivered.

It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide apparatus capable of periodically feeding an animal an exact quantity of feed at predetermined time intervals with accuracy of the quantity of feed being assured as a result of a number of compartments, only one which is opened for a given feeding, which compartments contain an exact quantity of feed.

It is also an aim of the present invention to eliminate the inaccuracies associated with automatic feeders depending upon augers to move a quantity of feed from a storage bin by providing apparatus which utilizes a free falling delivery door to open a compartment and permit gravitational flow of a given quantity of feed to the feeding area.

An aim of this invention is also to provide an automatic self feeder for animals which utilizes a mechanical means to unlock the delivery doors of storage compartments and is means to reset the doors to a locked position after any one or all of the doors have been opened.

It is still another object of this invention to provide an automatic self feeder for delivering an exact quantity of feed at predetermined time intervals to an animal which may be coupled with a timing device operating off of AC or DC current, or a timing device which is spring wound.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the self feeder constructed according to the teachings of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a vertical cross-sectionaf view, on an enlarged scale, of the self feeder shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a vertical cross-sectional view taken along line 3-3 of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is an end elevational view of the feeder with portions broken away to show details of construction;

FIG. 5 is an enlarged fragmentary view of one of the catches for holding a delivery door of the feeder in a closed position;

FIG. 6 is a vertical cross-sectional view taken along line 66 of FIG. 5;

FIG. 7 is a vertical cross-sectional view similar to FIG. 6 and showing the catch mechanism when it has been moved to its releasing position to permit gravitation of a delivery door to an open position; and

FIG. 8 is a schematic circuit diagram illustrating the opertion of the activating mechanism for the delivery doors.

Referring initially to FIGS. 1 and .2, the self feeder of the present invention is designated generally by the numeral 10 and comprises a plurality of individual feed compartments 12 disposed in side-by-side relationship within a common housing 14. Housing 14 comprises spaced apart end walls 16, a face plate 18, and a back wall 20. A hinged access lid 22 at the top of feeder 10 provides for common access to all of the compartments 12. Face plate 18 angles toward wall 20 at its lower end to cooperate with the wall in presenting an outlet from the housing. A common hopper 21 directs feed passing through the outlet from any of the compartments 12 to a desired location.

Within housing 14 each compartment 12 is presented by a vertically disposed divider 24 spanning the dis tance between back wall 20 and face plate 18. Each divider 24 presents a common wall for two adjacent compartments 12.

Referring additionally to FIGS. 3 and 4, it is seen that the bottom of each compartment 12 is presented by a delivery door 26 which is hingedly coupled'with back wall 20. Each delivery door 26 is held in a normally closed position by a catch member designated generally by the numeral 28.

Since each door 26 and associated catch 28 is indentical, only one of each will be described in detail hereinafter. Door 26 is of generally L-shaped configuration with the lowermost lip 30 of its free end resting upon one end of an elongated leg 32 of catch member 28. A second leg 34 of catch member 28, integral with leg 32, depends from the latter and serves to mount member 28 on the lowermost end of face plate 18. To this end, an elongated rod 36 extends the width of feeder l0 and passes through an appropriate sized opening in a flange 38 integral with leg 34 and extending from the latter at a 90 degree angle. Rod 36 also carries a sear spring 40 which biases catch member 28 toward the free end of door 26. Manifestly, the weight of a quantity of feed on door 26 will actually tend to tighten catch member 28 by exerting a force which will tend to hold the member in its locking position.

All of the doors 26 are disposed for freefalling movement under the weight of the feed in a compartment as soon as a respective catch member 28 is released. The common activator structure for all of the catches 28 will now be described in detail. An elongated externally polygonal shaft 42 has one end journaled in end wall 16 and the other end coupled to an electric motor 44 mounted on the opposite end wall 16. Shaft 42 carries a plurality of radially extending fingers 46 which are positioned to engage leg 32 and thereby move member 28 in a direction opposite to the free end of door 26. A number of fingers 46 are disposed in longitudinally spaced relationship along shaft 42 with one finger in alignment with each catch member. 28. Thus, there will be one finger for each compartment 12 disposed in spaced relationship to the next finger located along the length of shaft 42. The fingers 46 are disposed so that regardless of the relative rotational position of shaft 42 one finger 46 will always be in position, upon a given incremental rotation of the shaft to engage leg 32 and move catch member 28 to an open position. Shaft 42 also rotates a jumping cam 48 rigidly coupled therewith at one end for purposes to be explained hereinafter.

Motor 44 is adapted to be coupled with a source of power through a combination transformer and electric timing clock 50, of type well known to those skilled in the art, and associated circuitry to be described henceforth. Ground wire 52 and hot wire 54 present a first circuit coupling motor 44 with a source of power through timing clock 50. A second hot wire 56 together with ground wire 52 present a second circuit adapted to be coupled with a power source independent of timing clock 50. A switch 58 disposed in hot wire 56 to open or close the second circuit is operated by jumping cam 48.

When any of doors 26 of feeder 10 have been opened to allow gravitation of feed from compartments 12, the door or doors may be returned to their normally closed positions by a common door closure designated generally by the numeral 60. Closure means 60 comprises an elongated lifting shaft 62 disposed beneath doors 26 and extending the width of feeder 10. The ends of shaft 62 are mounted on bell cranks 64 (one of which is visible in FIG. 3) that are in turn pivotally mounted on end walls 16. An elongated connecting link 66 is pivotally coupled with bell crank 64 at a point opposite the end of shaft 62 and extends upwardly to lid 22 where it is pivotally coupled.

Upon lifting of lid 22 bell crank 64 is pivoted to raise shaft 62 and delivery doors 26 from the position illustrated in broken lines in FIG. 3 to the position shown in FIG. 4. This allows for simultaneous filling of each of the compartments 12 with feed. The quantity of feed is dependent upon the requirements of a particular animal and may be varied within the capacity of the compartment. Each compartment 12 would normally contain the desired quantity of feed for a given feeding. When all ofthe compartments are filled, lid 22 is closed to move shaft 62 to its out-of-the-way position adjacent back wall 20.

Timing clock 50 is set to provide an actuating pulse through the first circuit to motor 44 at predetermined time intervals. The actuating pulse is preferably of at least 30 seconds duration to assure rotation of shaft 42 and cam 48 a sufficient distance to close switch 58. Manifestly, this occurs as the shaft 42 is rotated in a counterclockwise direction when viewing FIG. 8 and the end of switch 58 rides up the first camming surface to the first plateau on the cam 48. Once switch 58 is closed the second circuit continues to assure operation of motor 44 until one of the fingers 46 has engaged a catch member 28 to open an associated door 26.

Each door 26 is opened as a finger 46 engages a leg 32 to bias member 28 against the action of spring 40.

As soon as lip 30 of a respective door 26 has cleared the end of leg 32, the door is free to fall under the weight of the feed contained in the compartment to the open position shown in broken lines in FIG. 3. The

spacing of fingers 46 is such that only one door 26 is opened before switch 58 slips into the next recess of cam 48 to thereby open the circuit and cease operation of motor 44. The next radially spaced finger 46 will, however, be in position to engage the next catch 28 and open the door of the next compartment when shaft 42 is again rotated. Once any of doors 26 have been opened to allow gravitation of feed from compartments 12, lid 22 may be raised to reset the doors to their closed positions as explained above.

While the invention has been explained with reference to an electric timing mechanism, it should be appreciated that other equivalent mechanisms including spring wound timing devices could be utilized to achieve periodic rotation of shaft 42. It is apparent,

however, that in any case a positive delivery system for a predetermined quantity of feed has been accomplished by the present invention. The danger of over.- feeding an animal is greatly minimized and by utilizing an independent power source the danger of not getting any feed to the animal is also minimized to an extent not heretofore possible. It should also be appreciated that multiple apparatuses 10 could be utilized in conjunction with a single timing clock 50 in a manner readily apparent to those skilled in the art.

What we claim is:

1. Apparatus for delivering a measured quantity of feed to an animal at multiple predetermined spaced apart time intervals, said appartus comprising:

a plurality of side-by-side feed compartments, each compartment containing a measured quantity of feed separate and apart from the feed in the other compartments, each of said compartments being characterized by a hingedly coupled delivery door disposed for gravitating to an open position to accommodate gravitation of feed from the compartment;

catch means for holding each of said doors in a nor- 'mally closed position;

common activator means for all of said catch means for selectively releasing each catch means at a predetermined time interval to open a compartment door;

timing means coupled with said activator means for periodically operating the latter at said predetermined time intervals;

door closure means for returning said doors to their closed positions simultaneously after one or more of the doors has been opened;

a common lid for all of said compartments hingedly coupled therewith for movement from a closed to an open position to thereby accommodate filling of the compartments with feed; and

linkage means coupling said door closure means with said lid for moving said door closure means to its door closing position when said lid is opened.

2. Apparatus for delivering a measured quantity to feed to an animal at multiple predetermined spaced apart time intervals, said apparatus comprising:

a plurality of feed compartments, each compartment containing a measured quantity of feed separate and apart from the feed in the other compartments, each of said compartments being characterized by a hingedly coupled delivery door disposed for gravitating to an open position to accommodate gravitation of feed from the compartment;

catch means for holding each of said doors in a normally closed position;

a rotatable shaft disposed transversely of said com partments and including means engageable with said catch means for selectively releasing each catch means at a predetermined time interval to open a compartment door;

an electrical timing clock adapted to be coupled with a power source;

an electrically powered prime mover for rotating said shaft;

first circuit means for coupling said clock with said prime mover for transmitting an actuating pulse of limited duration from the clock to the prime mover;

second circuit means diposed in parallel with said first circuit means for coupling said prime mover with a power source;

switch means disposed in the second circuit means and movable from an open to a closed position to complete the circuit; and

camming means rotatably coupled with said shaft and engageable with said switch means to close the latter upon rotation of the shaft, whereby said prime mover will continue to be energized after termination of said actuating pulse and until said switch and said camming means are disengaged.

3. The invention of claim 2, wherein said camming means comprises a jumping cam having multiple camming surfaces, whereby after said switch and a first 6 camming surface are disengaged said switch is in position for engagement with the next camming surface.

4. The invention of claim 2, each catch means comprising an elongated member having one end projecting beneath an edge of a door, and means biasing the member against movement in a direction opposite to said one end, said shaft being disposed adjacent said catch means, said means on the shaft comprising a plurality of radially extending fingers, at least one finger being engageable with the other end of one of said members to move the member in said direction against the action of the biasing means.

5. The invention of claim 4, wherein said compartments are disposed in side-by-side relationship and including doorclosure means for returning all of said doors to their closed positions, a common lid for all of said compartments, said lid being hingedly coupled with the latter for movement from an open to a closed position to accommodate filling of the compartments with feed, and linkage means coupling said door closure means with said lid for moving said door closure means to its door closing position when the lid is opened.

6. The invention of claim 5, wherein said door closure comprises an elongated bar extending beneath said doors, bell crank means mounting said bar for pivotal movement, and connecting means coupling said bell crank means with said lid.

7. The invention of claim 6, wherein is includded common hopper means disposed beneath said com= partments for directing the feed to a desired location as it leaves the respective compartments. 

1. Apparatus for delivering a measured quantity of feed to an animal at multiple predetermined spaced apart time intervals, said appartus comprising: a plurality of side-by-side feed compartments, each compartment containing a measured quantity of feed separate and apart from the feed in the other compartments, each of said compartments being characterized by a hingedly coupled delivery door disposed for gravitating to an open position to accommodate gravitation of feed from the compartment; catch means for holding each of said doors in a normally closed position; common activator means for all of said catch means for selectively releasing each catch means at a predetermined time interval to open a compartment door; timing means coupled with said activator means for periodically operating the latter at said predetermined time intervals; door closure means for returning said doors to their closed positions simultaneously after one or more of the doors has been opened; a common lid for all of said compartments hingedly coupled therewith for movement from a closed to an open position to thereby accommodate filling of the compartments with feed; and linkage means coupling said door closure means with said lid for moving said door closure means to its door closing position when said lid is opened.
 2. Apparatus for delivering a measured quantity to feed to an animal at multiple predetermined spaced apart time intervals, said apparatus comprising: a plurality of feed compartments, each compartment containing a measured quantity of feed separate and apart from the feed in the other compartments, each of said compartments being characterized by a hingedly coupled delivery door disposed for gravitating to an open position to accommodate gravitation of feed from the compartment; catch means for holding each of said doors in a normally closed position; a rotatable shaft disposed transversely of said compartments and including means engageable with said catch means for selectively releasing each catch means at a predetermined time interval to open a compartment door; an electrical timing clock adapted to be coupled with a power source; an electrically powered prime mover for rotating said shaft; first circuit means for coupling said clock with said prime mover for transmitting an actuating pulse of limited duration from the clOck to the prime mover; second circuit means diposed in parallel with said first circuit means for coupling said prime mover with a power source; switch means disposed in the second circuit means and movable from an open to a closed position to complete the circuit; and camming means rotatably coupled with said shaft and engageable with said switch means to close the latter upon rotation of the shaft, whereby said prime mover will continue to be energized after termination of said actuating pulse and until said switch and said camming means are disengaged.
 3. The invention of claim 2, wherein said camming means comprises a jumping cam having multiple camming surfaces, whereby after said switch and a first camming surface are disengaged said switch is in position for engagement with the next camming surface.
 4. The invention of claim 2, each catch means comprising an elongated member having one end projecting beneath an edge of a door, and means biasing the member against movement in a direction opposite to said one end, said shaft being disposed adjacent said catch means, said means on the shaft comprising a plurality of radially extending fingers, at least one finger being engageable with the other end of one of said members to move the member in said direction against the action of the biasing means.
 5. The invention of claim 4, wherein said compartments are disposed in side-by-side relationship and including door closure means for returning all of said doors to their closed positions, a common lid for all of said compartments, said lid being hingedly coupled with the latter for movement from an open to a closed position to accommodate filling of the compartments with feed, and linkage means coupling said door closure means with said lid for moving said door closure means to its door closing position when the lid is opened.
 6. The invention of claim 5, wherein said door closure comprises an elongated bar extending beneath said doors, bell crank means mounting said bar for pivotal movement, and connecting means coupling said bell crank means with said lid.
 7. The invention of claim 6, wherein is includded common hopper means disposed beneath said compartments for directing the feed to a desired location as it leaves the respective compartments. 